Family Makes This House A Home
by caremkefo
Summary: S10E18 Book of the Damned coda. After dinner they watch some more Game of Thrones, and then they go to bed. At first Cas seems a bit miffed that Charlie has her own room in the bunker and he doesn't. (Destiel undertones.)


After dinner they watch more _Game of Thrones_ with Charlie. Castiel is understandably confused because he hasn't seen the first few seasons, but he contentedly munches his way through a bowl of popcorn with them. (For an angel who doesn't need to eat, he can shovel away more than any of them when he puts his mind to it.)

Sam and Charlie are engrossed in the onscreen action, but Dean's distracted. It's rare that they have so many people in the bunker, and rarer they they all stay. It's always just him and Sam, and for a time Kevin.

Guilt washes over him as he thinks of their little prophet. He doesn't care that Gadriel 'redeemed himself in Heaven', as Cas had told them. As far as Dean was concerned the lying son of a bitch deserved to die.

The others laugh at something, and he forces a laugh along with them because he's so deep in thought he missed what was funny.

He'd considered the bunker home, because it's where they came back to when they weren't on the road, but he's beginning to realise that it's just another roof over their head. It's not a home until they have their friends - their _family_ \- with them.

He doesn't want to think about how quiet the bunker will be when Charlie goes home; how empty it'll feel when Cas undoubtedly leaves again. He forces himself to focus on the show.

Eventually Sam yawns, and before they know it they're all yawning. Well, all except Cas, who seems slightly unnerved by the spontaneous epidemic.

"Come on," Dean instructs Charlie and Cas. "Let Sam get his beauty sleep. He needs it, after all."

Sam smiles, and it's almost sad. "See you in the morning."

They file out of his room one by one, and Dean closes the door behind them.

"Do you remember how to get to your room?" he asks Charlie, and it seems surreal to think that someone else has a place with them.

"A left, a right, another right, and... second on the left?" she asks unsurely.

He shakes his head. "I'll show you."

It's left, right, another left, and first on the right.

"This place is like a maze," she comments as she kicks her shoes off. "Or the inside of the TARDIS."

"Bigger on the inside?" Dean asks her with a grin, and really it's an accurate description. The bunker is deceptively _huge_. He thinks there's still areas that he and Sam haven't seen yet.

She hugs him. "Thanks, Dean. And I was right," she adds deliberately. "Cas _is_ dreamy."

Dean's cheeks turn red as he tries to deny that he has any idea what she's talking about, but she just smiles knowingly.

"I've read the books," she points out. "And, uh... I'm not blind," she adds with a playful smile.

"Good _night_," Dean says firmly, leaving the room.

She shuts the door on him and he swears she chuckles on the other side of it.

He's glad he had a little brother rather than a little sister, he decides, as he makes his way to his room. When he passes Sam's he finds Cas still standing there, looking a little lost.

"You just gonna wait there until morning?" Dean teases.

"I'm an angel again," Cas says, as if Dean could forget. "I don't require sleep."

Dean licks his lips as he contemplates saying what he thinks he wants to say. "Come on," he decides on, motioning for Cas to follow him.

"Charlie has her own room," Cas observes, and there's an undercurrent of hurt beneath his words.

Dean could point out that Cas never stays - always leaves when things are good between them - but chooses not to. Cas is here, now, and he doesn't want to chase him away.

"Charlie needs to sleep," he points out as they reach his room, though it doesn't seem to mollify Cas in the slightest. "And you don't need your own room," he adds quietly, saying it like it's some kind of confession. He moves his pillow from the centre of the bed to the far side as if to prove his point.

Castiel watches as he strip to his boxers. It's surprisingly not pervy.

"Dean," he says warily, like his following words are a bomb that could detonate at any second. "About my grace..."

"Don't," Dean cuts him off, a little roughly.

"But-"

"I said don't, okay?" he says, and it's almost a shout.

Cas looks taken aback, and breaks eye contact. He can't look at Dean when he thinks Dean's angry with him.

He takes a breath, calming himself - calming the _Mark_. Walking up to Cas, he places a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "We just really need a win, okay?" he says softly, staring at Cas until the angel finally looks at him.

The angel gazes at him for a long moment, and Dean thinks he's forgotten how to breathe.

"I capiche, Dean," he says eventually.

Cas's choice of words hurts, because it reminds him of the last time he thought Cas would stick around but the angel ended up leaving him.

"Good," he says, even though things are anything but. "Now I'm gonna grab some shut eye, 'cause I'm beat."

"I'll watch over you."

Dean looks at Cas and smiles. There's his angel. "Gonna make sure there's no monsters under my bed, too?" he chuckles.

Castiel's hard stare falls on the bed. "Just a spider," he announces. "It's harmless."

Dean shakes his head in bemusement as he pulls back the covers and slides into bed. When he turns out the light the bed dips beside him as Castiel settles down beside him for the night.

"I don't want my own room," Cas says in the darkness, and there's a happiness in his tone that makes Dean feel like maybe there's hope for them yet.

"You've got a room, Cas," Dean tells him. "You just have to share it."


End file.
